The year of the pandemic brought an influx of cats to the feeding bowls; maybe they came from local workshops and businesses which were on enforced lockdowns because of the pandemic situation, or maybe they were being fed by farmers who chose to stay away from their fields. Most of these cats later returned to their regular feeders, but there were a few who decided to stay. None of them settled in the garden; most of them were more comfortable out and about in the fields, so they came to eat in the drive or the front path.

Gypsy was the friendliest and already used to human contact; she had been neutered and had obviously be looked after and cared for at some time. She knew what windows and doors were for and, despite being friendly with humans, she also got on well with the existing group of cats who could find nothing in her placid disposition to which to object.

Phantom arrived during the pandemic, although she was brought to the adjacent field by her mother who then left Phantom close to food and water and disappeared off into the fields to carry on her single life. So Phantom probably didn’t remember going to eat anywhere else apart from the front path and drive as she was only a few weeks old when she arrived. She was very wary and it was over a month before we could get close enough to realise that she was a girl and not a boy, as we had first thought. But, as the months progressed, Phantom settled down, eventually making her home at the far side of the fields opposite. Maybe that was where she had originally come from – who knows?

Il-Ħadd was a mature tabby cat, and tabby cats were rare in the neighbourhood, so he stood out. He was completely feral and spent his time in the fields, working his way up the alpha-male ladder although he never became one of the dominant males. He disappeared for some time and returned partially sighted – maybe through fighting, or an accident. We could not get close to him to check his eye out as he was averse to any human being close by.

And lastly, Izit (or Izambard the Italian, to give him his full name). Izit arrived during the pandemic, along with another three or four males – presumably all from the same area in the neighbourhood. Why some of them chose to return but Izit didn’t, we don’t know, but maybe it was because he was a big, strong male and quickly worked his way to the top rung of the alpha-male tree, as was his plan, and could see a bright future ahead of him in the fields surrounding The Cat’s garden.

There were multiple free feeding bowls of food and water in the garden, drive and front path so there were probably other cats of whom we were unaware who came to eat at night, but these were the ones who were brave enough to let themselves be seen by us.